Land of Day -Sunlight-
by Dark2Ganny
Summary: A one-shot chapter I tried to do in the style of the Kino no Tabi novels. Hope you enjoy.


Under the blazing heat of the summer sun, a man rode his car along the tender dirt road. He wiped sweat from his brow and squinted past the sunlight entering from the windshield. In front of him, there was a traveler heading in the direction opposite of him.

The man gently brought his car to a stop and poked his head out of the window. "Hello, traveler!" he called out.

The traveler stopped their motorrad (Note: A two-wheeled vehicle. Only to note that it cannot fly.) next to the man's car and looked up. The traveler was a young woman - around her teens - with short, dark hair.

"Are you planning to enter the country a little further down the road here?" the man asked the traveler. The traveler simply nodded. "Don't bother!"

"Why not?" the motorrad responded to the man.

"I just came from that country, and there wasn't a soul in sight. I thought maybe I had found a nice place to open up a shop, but I can't open a shop if there's no customers! Well, anyway, there's no point in going in there."

The traveler nodded, "Thank you for the advice." The man smiled and bid farewell to the traveler before starting his car back up and continuing down the road.

"So, Kino. Are we skipping the next country?" the motorrad asked his rider.

"No." the traveler named Kino responded. "I want to see if there is really nobody there. Let's go Hermes."

—-

The country was bordered by a short, wire fence. Where the soft, dirt road ends, a gate was found, where one could enter the country.

"I guess nobody runs the gate?" Kino questioned as she dismounted Hermes and walked up to the gate. It was about as tall as Kino, and seemed to only be connected loosely to the wire fence.

"If nobody lives here, what would be the point?"

Kino pushed lightly on the gate, prompting it to open slowly. After a moment of watching the gate open completely, Kino started to push Hermes into the country.

The road continued within the country, forming several squares in the ground as it circled around small huts. The country was not very large, as Kino could see the other side of the fence from where she has just entered.

Just as the man had said, no living being could be spotted walking outside. Kino knocked on the door of a few of the huts, only to be met with silence.

One hut's door swung wide open after being tapped. Kino and Hermes peered inside. There was a desk with a small, wooden sign hanging from it that read "Hotel: Front Desk". Still there was no sign of life.

"There really is no one around."

Kino walked into the hut that was supposedly a hotel and examined the desk. The sign hanging from it was worn and chipped, and the words were written in a paint that had long dried. Behind the desk there was a rusted box about the size of a loaf of bread.

"Kino, you're not planning on staying in this country, are you?" Hermes asked. "If there's nothing to see here we should just keep going."

"The sun will set soon, so maybe we can spend tonight here." Kino replied.

Deeper inside the hut was a narrow corridor with three doors. Two of the doors led to a very small room with an equally small bed and a window that was placed low on the wall. The third door at the end of the corridor was mysteriously locked.

Kino set Hermes in one of the small rooms before stepping outside the hotel. She began practicing drawing her hand persuader (Note: A persuader is a gun. In this case, a pistol.) she called Cannon. After spending some time doing that, she went to bed.

—-

The next day.

Kino tapped Hermes awake around noon. "I've decided I'll stay here the full three days."

"Why? We should just keep moving, the place is empty. I'm not getting any older, Kino." Hermes complained.

"You mean you're not 'getting any younger.' And…" Kino started pushing Hermes outside the hotel. As she did she looked back at the desk. "I feel like that old box moved."

"You're joking, right?"

Kino and Hermes went along the border of the country and viewed all the scenery that could be seen from within the fence. It took only forty-five minutes to walk the area around the country. After doing so, the two stopped in the center of the country.

A square patch of grass, outlined by the dirt road, the center of the country was the only patch that did not have a hut sitting on it.

"How about a picnic."

Kino grabbed a tarp from her luggage sitting on Hermes and spread it out on the patch of grass. She then prepared some food she had stored and sat down on the tarp.

"This place must have been abandoned. I wonder how long ago." Hermes mused.

"I would like to know _why _they abandoned it."

"Maybe they all just mysteriously vanished and now they haunt these grounds."

Kino replied to that comment with silence.

After spending some time sitting on the tarp, sharpening some knives, Kino packed everything up and rolled Hermes back to the hut that acted as a hotel. After placing him in the same small room as the day before, she returned outside. The sun was beginning to set. The beautiful blue sky was slowly tinted with varying shades of red.

Kino practiced using her persuader until the sun had completely set, and then she went to bed.

—-

The next day, that is to say, the third day since Kino had arrived in this country. It was a little past midnight when Kino was awoken by a man's voice, shouting angrily.

Peering outside the low window from her room, she could see a few dim lights scattered across the small country. Some odd feet away from her window, there was a man pushing a small cart around, seeming irritated. A second man, younger than the first, watched the first man walk off and spit at the ground.

People.

Kino tapped Hermes awake.

"There's people here," she explained to him. "This place isn't abandoned or anything."

"Maybe their ghosts." Hermes suggested. But Kino responded with nothing but doubt as she pushed Hermes to the front desk.

Standing at the desk was a young woman wearing dark clothing and a sun hat. When Kino stepped up to the desk, the woman did not seem surprised. Instead,

"Welcome, Miss Traveler. I hope you've been enjoying your stay. Though it was odd of you to only walk around at night."

Kino and Hermes were both puzzled.

"Um, can you tell me what everyone is doing so late?" Kino asked the woman. The woman laughed lightly.

"Why, Miss Traveler, they're going about their daily lives. What do you mean by 'late'?"

Kino looked behind her. the hotel door was left wide open, and she could see several dozen people interacting and walking about. Some small children were playing tag, and a young girl was leaving laundry out to dry.

"It's a nice day today, is it not? You really shouldn't sleep all day and be up all night if you want to experience our country, Miss Traveler." the woman at the hotel desk made idle chatter.

"Ooh. Kino, their sleep patterns are just backwards." Hermes was finally catching on.

"I guess it may be backwards to you two." the woman responded, "But to me, I just can't understand how you can sit under the moon all night. Our ancestors, who founded this country, were reported to do the same thing. But the moon is much too hot and exhausting. We prefer the cool breeze that occurs under the gentle light of the sun. So a few hundred years ago, we started sleeping at night rather than in the day."

It was head-rattling logic, but Kino seemed to understand. "Ah, I should pay for staying here then."

The woman shook her head, "Oh no, stay as long as you like. Travelers don't seem to like to stay here very long after arriving, so we're very glad to have you, Miss Traveler."

"So the rooms are free?" Hermes asked for confirmation. The woman nodded.

"Miss, does this country have any restaurants?"

"Ah, no„ nothing like that. Food comes from the produce seller who leaves the country once a week. He brought some fresh fruits in just today, so if you go now you might get the best picks!"

"Thank you very much." Kino thanked the woman, and rolled Hermes outside of the hotel. After tracking down the produce seller, which was not very difficult, and buying a couple of fresh apples, Kino sat in the center of the country and watched the people. Despite it being night, most of the residents were wearing sun hats or the like.

"A country of nocturnal people. That's new."

"Yeah."

"Hey, Kino, sleeping all day doesn't sound too bad right now."

"It sure does. We'll be leaving as soon as the moon rises, after all."

Kino laughed gently.

—-

The two had returned to the hotel, thanked the woman once again, and went to bed.

Kino got up at the crack of dawn, as usual. After tapping Hermes awake and checking her luggage, she stepped outside of the hotel and mounted the motorrad.

Knowing how busy the country seemed just the night before, the now barren land basking in the blazing heat of the summer sun seemed odd.

"I guess you can't judge something from the surface, can you?" Kino said to herself, riding Hermes to the gate opposite of the one they entered the country from and leaving the small country behind.

—-

Under the blazing heat of the summer sun, a man in his mid-thirties was driving his car along the soft dirt road. After some time, he saw a traveler on a motorrad riding toward him. The man stopped his car and poked his head out the window.

"Hello there, traveler!"

The traveler slowly brought their motorrad to a stop and looked up at the man.

"Is there a country nearby that I can buy some supplies from?" the man asked the traveler.

The traveler looked back at the road they had just traversed. "There is a country just down this road, but it doesn't seem like anyone lives there."

"Oh, is that so… Well no problem then. Thank ya'."

The man and the traveler started their vehicles and started riding off opposite from each other, all while basking in the bright light of the sun.


End file.
